Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my great pleasure to pay tribute to Brian Sambell, mayor of the town of Gawler, who, at the age of 71, is retiring from local government but not from business. He intends to stay in the tourism trade and you cannot get a better guide for bush Australia than Brian Sambell. I would particularly like to pay tribute to his wife Glenys, who met Brian all those years ago at a Templars dance, has been by his side ever since and has been a very good of Gawler. Brian and I have worked together on a number of projects but I should say at the outset that I regard him as a very close friend and a good mate. Because of that relationship, we have been able to achieve an awful lot together.

The town of Gawler and the federal government in my time as the member for Wakefield have completed the Evanston Gardens Community Centre and library, which is a very important project. It puts in place community facilities for the expansion of Gawler. It is one of the few times when community facilities have been put in place in advance of the expansion rather than after it. I have had some experience of living in suburbs which have been crying out for facilities, so it is good that the town of Gawler looks forward to the growth of Gawler in providing the facility. We also worked very closely on the Gawler rivers bike path, a very important project for Gawler which really has transformed the river area and has allowed for the bike path to expand to Hewett and further to build a link to Tanunda and the Barossa Valley. It is a very important tourism and social link. The member for Barker and I opened the bike path and it is important to his electorate as well. We share some common interests and it is nice to have them acknowledged in the parliament.

At the age of 71, Brian is an active citizen of Gawler who still rides in the 24-hour trial at Kapunda, which extends into the Barker electorate and Truro. He is a really good citizen and a really good businessman, a bit of an icon of Gawler. It is sad that he is retiring from local government but I know he will continue to be a good citizen of Gawler. He is a really good mate of mine and I rely on him for advice on local issues now, as I will in future. I commend him to the national parliament.